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Enhanced Initiating Effect of Multiple Shock Intersections

Abstract

PREVIOUS work has shown that underwater shock-wave initiation of cast pentolite can be photographed advantageously by a simple argon flash-lamp method in which a common mechanical-shutter camera is used1. Very minute scintillations were usually evident on the detonating pentolite charges, presumably because of the presence of minute air pockets between the particles situated near the surface of the charges. These air pockets probably provided a multitude of initiation centres. Bowden and co-workers have obtained photographic evidence that bubbles in nitroglycerin and air pockets in solid explosives enhance initiation and that initiation occurs at these bubbles or gas pockets2.

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References

  1. Winning, C. H., “Photographic Study of Underwater, Gap Initiation of Pentolite”, XXVII Congrès International de Chimie Industrielle, Section 19—Poudres et Explosifs, September 1954, Bruxelles.

  2. Bowden, F. P., and Yoffe, A. D., “Initiation and Growth of Explosions in Liquids and Solids” (Camb. Univ. Press, 1952).

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  3. Winning, C. H., and Edgerton, H. E., “Explosive Argon Flashlamp”, J. SMPTE, 59, 178, 183 (Sept. 1952).

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WINNING, C. Enhanced Initiating Effect of Multiple Shock Intersections. Nature 177, 33–34 (1956). https://doi.org/10.1038/177033a0

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